"Words Have Meaning" File

[webfarmer]

How the federal government of Australia is handing their lack of moisture which more than a few are pointing to as a result of global warming. The first section of a longer article. Thanks to monissaw.

It's Not a Drought, It's 'Dryness' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"Federal Government-selected experts want people to start using the word 'dryness' to describe Australia's worst drought in a century. The word 'drought' makes farmers feel bad, says the Government's hand-picked Drought Policy Review Expert Social Panel.

The politically-correct push also aims to make farmers accept that drier weather is here to stay, and is not a temporary crisis,the panel's newly released report, [It's About People: Changing Perspectives on Dryness, a Report to Government by an Expert Social Panel] [PDF] said.

'Words like drought ... have negative connotations for farm families,' the report said. 'There needs to be a new national approach to living with dryness, as we prefer to call it, rather than dealing with drought.'"

Comments

[markmc03.livejournal.com]

I thought the new PM was supposed to be progressive. I was surprised when he flew to kiss Bush's hand soon after election. But then they shamed the Japanese whaling fleet. Mixed bag, I guess.

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

Rudd is more progressive than Howard but he didn't write this report.

I'd have to read the whole document to know if this is one of those out-of-context "gotcha" journalism items or something more substantial.

It just seemed interesting and noteworthy in a quirky way.

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought :)

Although the ABC news site isn't too bad in that respect. It's more usually short reports/updates as they come in sort of news